When it comes to interior design at Traditions Home, the possibilities are as endless as the drops of rain that fall upon the ocean, as the golden rays of sun that warm our hearts in Summer.

Lake Skaneateles, New York

Pardon the hyperbole.
We are freed from the old-fashioned Victorian constraint and presented with an endless possibility of form and design – Mission, Modern, Mid-Century Modern, Traditional, Contemporary, Cape Cod, Prairie Home, Southern Traditional, Vintage, Rustic, Colonial, Shaker, and on and on and on. Why, I haven’t even begun to list the historical periods from Federalist to Chippendale and Sheraton stretching back to Jacobean.

The traditional Piedmont sideboard

In Richard II, William Shakespeare has the Duke of York report, “… fashions of proud Italy, whose manners still our tardy apish nation limps after in base imitation.”In the play a Tudor topples an tyrant, King Richard.

Slavish devotion is in the past. For, “the world is mine oyster which with sword I will open,” Pistol retorts to Falstaff in the Merry Wives of Windsor, “A most pleasant and excellent conceited comedy.”

How do we choose?
We do.
And if you would like to discuss Shakespeare, his plays, or the many interior design styles, come by for a free consultation at Traditions Home in Wichita and Overland Park.

There is not much more to say, but that Stickley is simply beautiful. Oh yes, and for a limited time the Harvey Ellis rocker (available in oak and cherry with any grade 3 leather seat) can be purchased for $799.

Harvey Ellis rocker

And what if you want to seat two? Get the Harvey Ellis Settee in cherry for $1499.

Harvee Ellis Settee

While we are on the subject of seating, what do you do for the heart of your home. Take a look at this. Gather round the distinctive new Gathering island or sit on the Highlands Sectional Sofa, put your feet gently on the matching square Highlands cocktail table, or claim the Highlands chair and ottoman all to yourself. I thought you’d never ask. The rug, Monterey Grove.

Highlands Living Room

Have we given you enough to dream about? Dream on…

Oak Knoll Spindle bed, master dresser, night stand

This collection is solid wild black cherry, with blackwood accents. It is the new Pasadena Bungalow bedroom. Did you ask? The rug is Monterey Mist.

Tomorrow is another day, and we dine at the Exeter dining table in solid cherry or mahogany, seated at the Manchester hostess chairs with the Classic Display Cabinet looking on.

Exeter dining table, Manchester chairs, and Classic display cabinet

There are many names for it – the study, lounge, library, even the family room. Somewhere that is a little less formal, and one can have a quiet moment of peace. Stickley says, “Make each day feel like the weekend.” Choose the Chicago sofa, pair it up with the Gathering Island, or make it a sectional.

Chicago sofa

You can read all about the Stickley Sale, where it is your last chance to buy Stickley at 2015 prices from the comfort of the Bustle Back Arm Morris Recliner, available at the special price of $2799.

A Chippendale chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, inventor of modern architecture and the glass skyscraper

A glass skyscraper is never called a Mies van der Rohe, perhaps is should.

Chippendale chair

Thomas Chippendale (1718 –1779) – London cabinet-maker, published in 1754 The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director codifying the fashion in England for creative blends of Gothic, Asian, and French Rococo designs of Louis XV.

Chairs in the Chippendale style became rectilinear, the stiles straight and outwardly-flaring at the top corners, back splats, which were formerly solid in the Queen Anne style, came to be pierced and intricately carved with foliage and interlacing patterns. Chair legs were either straight or more fanciful with ball and eagle claws. Of all the Chippendale chairs, the ribbon-back chair with a broad seat and cupid’s bow-style back rail is the most well-known.

Forecasting the future has never been easy. Why even the weatherman seems to get tomorrow’s weather wrong half the time. As for furniture and fashion, time honored classics will always hold a place in our hearts. They are a link to who we were and a statement of who we are.

But that said, nobody wants grandmother’s old sofa.

We millennials seek a brave new world and a style that reflects modern life.
We are fashion-forward. Avant-garde, as the French like to say, as if recalling a Napoleonic charge at Austerlitz.

I pause here and reflect. I am decidedly pro-French, my grandmother was French, born in a tiny village in Lorraine called Graffigny. Though Napoleon’s armies were finally defeated, it was only after five coalitions of European armies were thrown against France and defeated.

Coco Chanel, famous for haute couture, perfume, and the little black dress, said of fashion:

“[It]is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, [in our homes and living rooms], fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

And what is happening is a revolution in technology and travel. The world is shrinking my friends. Information is at our wrist with an Apple watch and on the bridge of our noses if we wear Google glasses.

And yet, we must guard against a constant digital presence. At the end of the day, the home is place to gather with friends and family. The home is a place of refuge and a place of comfort, a place to sit and stay, a place to escape the digital revolution.

In an age of mass technology, a glimpse is enough, no more, for the future of what is to be is not yet revealed.

The power of plaid can be subtle, and it’s always classic; a soft woven feel and you don’t have to be Scottish to love it.

the power of plaid

The best fashion advice we can give is be yourself and just to do what makes you feel comfortable, and that’s how you’re gonna be your best because when you feel your best, everybody else feels it too, especially when it is a soft woven flannel plaid.